Faves: Healthy juice and a cool way of drinking it

Note: I don't get paid to comment about products. I just like babbling about stuff I like that makes my life easier and perhaps will do the same for yours. :)

My husband and I drink a lot of water. On a daily basis, he drinks about 192 ounces and I usually get between 96-128 ounces. I was told by a spin instructor you should, at a minimum, drink half your weight in ounces and more if you worked up a sweat. I wish Boo would drink a lot of water but she doesn't - yet (going to encourage her when the weather cools when she isn't sweating like she does now). I experienced mommyguilt because I was giving her juice while many of her friends were drinking water. I have recurring nightmares where she gets dehydrated so I resolved that watered down juice is a whole lot better than her not drinking enough. Last year, I stumbled on a healthy beverage that has gotten rid of the guilt. It's Bolthouse Farms' Green Goodness smoothie. It contains such ingredients as wheat grass, spirulina, spinach, and blue-green algae but the various fruit that's added masks the flavor of these green goodies. It's flash pasteurized, preservative-free, and is made of 100% juice with no added sugar. It's a dark green color so I was concerned Boo wouldn't drink it when I first gave it to her. The first few times I put it in a sippy cup where she couldn't see the color but after a while I stopped concealing it and she was fine with it. We call it "super juice" so it sounds really cool. I do dilute it and feel good knowing she is getting hydrated and consuming the nutrients it provides all at the same time. You can usually find it in the produce section for about $4 for 1 liter but you can get a twin-pack at Costco for about $6. Pricey, yes, but I think it's worth it.

A friend of mine's daughter was drinking out of a Thermos FUNtainer bottle and I liked that it was stainless steel and kept drinks cold for 12 hours. Have you seen them? Hers was Hello Kitty who we both love but Target didn't have it so we picked up the Barbie version. It's sold in the camping section - they do have boys' versions, too. It has an easy to open (for a 2 1/2 year old and older) flip top that reveals a straw from which she can drink. Love this because it's durable (it's been dropped countless times and on concrete, too), easy access to her drink and it's leakproof as long as the top is closed. I taught her from the start to close the top as soon as she's finished drinking and she's been good about doing it. It's easy to clean and at $15, it's a good deal for a stainless steel cup. Now that we have it, it's practically the only cup she uses. Before we had it, I'd give her a plastic sippy cup and toss out the majority of its contents because it would sit around at room temperature. This cup allows her to sip from it all day and I don't have to worry about the contents spoiling. I haven't checked out the other stainless steel cups because I really like Thermos'.